Cambridge, Mass., physical education classes have changed to focus on lifelong habits, such as bicycling, dancing and running.

Cambridge, Mass., students get ready for a healthy, physical activity-filled day at school.

Along the shore of the Quequechan River, a walking and cycling path has been extended to encourage physical activity in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Communities are working to achieve a Culture of Health across Massachusetts, and in the eastern part of the state, obesity in kids under age 6 is down by 21.4 percent.

Efforts in the region include Shape Up Somerville, a pioneering campaign devoted to increasing daily physical activity and promoting healthy eating in a culturally diverse city north of Boston. The campaign was the subject of the first-ever study to show that community-based interventions could have a significant impact on children’s weight.

Some key elements of the program’s approach include:

Substantial food service reform in schools that includes offering healthy snacks, providing more fresh and local fruits and vegetables, training staff and involving students in taste testing;

Launching a healthy restaurant program that highlights healthier options on local restaurant menus and promotes participating restaurants;

Managing a mobile farmers market that travels to low-income and food desert areas, accepts nutrition assistance benefits (and gives a dollar-for-dollar match to everyone using those programs) and sources produce that is culturally relevant for the city’s significant immigrant population;

Working with schools to launch and sustainable maintain nutrition education programs and cooking classes;

Adding new bike lanes and traffic-calming measures to make streets safer and more accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians;

Introducing recreation programming that encourages people to be more active, including an open streets initiative called SomerStreets;

Adopting a 20-year comprehensive plan that aims to increase residents’ access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity;

Working with the city to implement an urban agriculture ordinance designed to make healthy foods more easily accessible, becoming the first community in New England to do so; and

Other efforts to help kids in the region achieve a healthy weight include:

Mass in Motion, a statewide program promoting opportunities for healthy eating and active living in schools, workplaces, child-care centers, state agencies and communities;

A wellness campaign in Boston, which helped implement a wellness policy for Boston Public Schools, ban sales of sugary drinks on city property and start campaigns to make neighborhoods more walkable and healthy food more accessible;

Get Fit Gloucester, which promotes walking, bicycling and improved access to healthy and affordable foods.

Eastern Massachusetts has demonstrated a strong, long-term commitment to preventing and reducing childhood obesity, and places like Somerville show what happens when different sectors come together to create a healthy community.